FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kantar Media to acquire leading Chinese social business intelligence agency CIC
Deal extends WPP units capabilities in social media listening and analysis into worlds second largest ad market
17 January 2012 - Kantar Media, the media research and insights division of Kantar, has expanded its social media offer in China with the acquisition of CIC, a leader in the Chinese Social media listening and analysis industry. The deal will build on the companys significant global presence and activities in media market research and insights with 5,000 staff across 60 markets, with CIC working along with the other leading Kantar Media partnerships in China including CSM and CTR. Kantar Media is a unit of Kantar, the consumer insight arm of WPP, the worlds largest communications services group. The acquisition comes in response to the growing client need for the real-time monitoring of consumer brand conversations in a market with over 70% of the 500 million Internet users on social media and with over 50,000 enterprises owning a microblog account. It gives Kantar Media a strong base in China and Asia Pacific for social media intelligence and insights as China this year became the worlds second largest advertising market. Founded in 2004 and with offices in Shanghai and Beijing, CIC coined the now standard Chinese industry term Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) and pioneered the concept of social business in China. With a team of over 60 social media consultants, innovative dashboards solutions and patent pending in technologies such as Chinese language text mining, CIC has led the industry in developing and applying social media intelligence and insights across its roster of blue-chip clients includes 5 brands out of the top 10 listed in Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, and is at the forefront of monetizing the social business industry in China. Sam Flemming, founder and chairman of CIC, commented: In joining Kantar Media, we will provide our clients with accessible, intelligent and meaningful analysis of brand discussions wherever they take place. We will also develop new client offers by identifying the synergies between our data set including an archive of over 3 billion consumer brand mentions and Kantar Medias vast data resources. Further, the relationship will allow CIC to bring social business intelligence and insight to Kantar and across the whole WPP network as well as replicate its success in the broader Asia Pacific market.

The CIC team will remain based in Shanghai and Beijing, China and its management team will report to Jean-Michel Portier, global CEO of Kantar Media. Portier said: It is clear that the monitoring of consumer, brand and market discussions and the resulting insights are vital tools for executives worldwide. With Kantar Media Cymfony, we are already committed to maximizing our clients success in monitoring and analyzing consumer discussions in the US and in Europe. With CIC, we are achieving another milestone to establishing the same recognition for excellence in China that Cymfony already has . CIC is an exciting and successful company. CIC will enrich our global digital expertise in capturing millions of online conversations and making sense of the buzz in order to provide interpretation that informs strategic decisions and leads to action.

About Kantar Media Kantar Media provides strategic advice and competitive intelligence to the worlds leading brands, publishers, agencies and industry bodies, helping them navigate and succeed in a rapidly evolving media industry. This includes analysis of paid media opportunities; counsel on brand reputation, corporate management and consumer engagement through owned media; and, evaluating consumers reactions in earned media. Kantar Media provides clients with a broad range of insights from audience research, competitive intelligence, vital consumer behavior and digital insights, to marketing effectiveness and online influence. Our experts currently work with 22,000 companies tracking 3 million brands in 50 countries Kantar Media is a unit of Kantar, the consumer insight arm of WPP. WPP is the worlds largest communications services group with billings of $66 billion and revenues of $14.4 billion. www.Kantarmedia.com

For more information, please contact Europe : Teresa Horscroft Tel: +44 (0)1420 564346 Mobile: +44 (0)7990 520390 Email:teresa@eurekacomms.co.uk Asia : CIC Chander Guo Tel: +86 (21) 52373860 * 891 Mobile: +86 13816361709 Email:chander.guo@cicdata.com